Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon
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The Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon is a work written in the 13th century by the Arab physician Ibn al-Nafis. A manuscript of the work was discovered in 1924 in the archives of the Prussian State Library in Berlin, Germany.[1] It contains the earliest descriptions of the coronary circulation and pulmonary circulation systems.[1] The manuscript records Ibn Nafis' prediction of the existence of the capillaries which he described as perceptible passages (manafidh) between pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein. These passages would later be identified by Marcello Malpighi as capillaries.[2][3]
The work was translated into Latin by the Italian physician Andrea Alpago,[4] In 1520, Alpago returned to Padua with a Latin translation of the commentary, after living in the Arabian Peninsula for 30 years.[5]